1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a novel disazo compound useful as a charge generating material of a photosensitive material, particularly laminated type photosensitive material for use in electrophotography, a method for producing said disazo compound and a photosensitive material having a photosensitive layer containing said disazo compound as a charge generating material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, typically known photosensitive materials include inorganic type photosensitive materials using selenium and its alloy or dispersion of zinc oxide sensitized by coloring matter in binder resin, and organic type photosensitive materials using a charge transfer complex of 2,4,7-trinitro-9-fluorenone (hereinafter referred to as "TNF") and poly-N-vinylcarbazole (hereinafter referred to as "PVK").
However, these conventional photosensitive materials have not only advantages but also various disadvantages. For example, the selenium type photosensitive material widely used at present has such disadvantages as that the manufacturing cost is high due to the severity of the manufacturing conditions; that it is difficult to work the material into a belt-like product because of lack of flexibility; and that it is difficult to handle because the material is weak to heat and mechanical shock. The zinc oxide type photosensitive material can be manufactured at a low expense by coating cheap zinc oxide on a substrate, but has such disadvantages as that the sensitivity is low; that the smoothness of the surface, hardness, tensile strength, friction resistance and other mechanical properties are inferior; and that the durability for repeated use in a plain paper copier is poor. The photosensitive material using the charge transfer complex of TNF and PVK has a low sensitivity and is unsuitable as a photosensitive material for a high speed copier.
Recently, various studies have been carried out to remove disadvantages of these photosensitive materials, and many photosensitive materials, particularly organic type photosensitive materials have been proposed. Among them, a laminated type photosensitive material prepared by forming a thin film of organic pigment on an electro-conductive substrate (charge generating layer) and overlaying a charge transfer material-containing layer (charge transfer layer) on said charge generating layer has generally higher sensitivity and more stable chargeability than the conventional organic type photosensitive materials, and is practically used in part as a photosensitive material for a plain paper copier.
Examples of this kind of known conventional laminated type photosensitive materials include as follows:
(1) photosensitive material using a thin layer formed by vapor depositing perylene derivatives as a charge transfer layer (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,882);
(2) photosensitive material using a thin layer formed by coating an organic amine solution of Chloro Dian Blue as a charge generating layer and hydrazone compound as a charge transfer layer (see Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-42380);
(3) photosensitive material using a thin layer formed by coating an organic solvent dispersion of distyryl benzene type disazo compound, stilbene type disazo compound or benzidine type disazo compound as a charge generating layer and hydrazone compound as a charge transfer layer (see Japanese Patent Laid Open Nos. 55-84943, 52-8832 and 52-55643); and the like.
However, these conventional laminated type photosensitive materials have not only advantages but also various disadvantages as mentioned below.
(1) The above photosensitive material using perylene derivatives and oxadiazole derivatives has a disadvantage that the manufacturing cost is very high because of forming a charge generating layer by vapor deposition.
(2) The above photosensitive material using Chloro Dian Blue and hydrazone compound must use an organic amine (for example, ethylene diamine) as a coating solvent for forming a charge generating layer, which is difficult in handling. Furthermore, it has a disadvantage that the image reproducibility of a reddish original is poor because the photosensitive wavelength range of the visible light zone lies in the range of about 450-660 nm. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a filter to cut red light when used in a copier, thus being disadvantageous to the design of a copier.
(3) The above photosensitive materials using distyryl benzene type disazo compound, stilbene type disazo compound or benzidine type disazo compound and hydrazone compound have an advantage that the charge generating layer can easily be prepared simply by coating a dispersion of the disazo compound, but also have a disadvantage that the image reproducibility of a reddish original is poor in the same manner as in the above photosensitive material (2) since the photosensitive wave length lies in the range of about 450-700 nm.